Antoine Lahad

Antoine Lahad (1927-10 September 2015) was the leader of the South Lebanon Army from 1984 to 2000, succeeding Saad Haddad.

Biography
Antoine Lahad was born in 1927 in al-Qattara, Lebanon to a family of Catholic Maronites. He attended the Lebanese Military Academy after 1952, and in 1984 he became the commander of the South Lebanon Army during the Lebanese Civil War after Saad Haddad died of cancer. He was close to former president Camille Chamoun and formed Druze, Shia, and Christian militias to fight against the Palestine Liberation Organization militants. In 1988, he survived an assassination attempt by Lebanese Communist Party member Souha Bechara. During the 1990s, Lahad led the SLA in a war against Hezbollah in South Lebanon, and in 2000 he was condemned to death after the SLA was defeated by Hezbollah. He later headed to Israel, and he died in Paris, France on 10 September 2015.